Formation of shear bands and strain-induced martensite during plastic deformation of metastable austenitic stainless steels

Formation of shear bands and strain-induced epsilon- and alpha'-martensite phases during tensile deformation of austenitic stainless steels was studied. Stacking fault energies (SFE) of the studied steels were measured by X-ray diffraction. Effects of external stress and SEE on the width of the stacking faults were analysed. An excellent correlation between the calculations and actual microstructures examined by scanning electron microscopy was found. Effect of overlapping of stacking faults on the fault width was discussed. Based on the discussions and experimental results, compositional, temperature and strain rate dependencies of the strain-induced alpha'-martensite transformation are believed to be governed mainly by the variation in the SEE. (c) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.